Curt Schilling: Performance Enhancing Drugs Touted 'in Clubhouse'

Former star Red Sox Star pitcher Curt Schilling says he was encouraged to use performance enhancing drugs late in his career.

"At the end of my career, in 2008 when I had gotten hurt, there was a conversation that I was involved in, in which it was brought to my attention that this is a potential path I might want to pursue," Schilling told ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd Wednesday.

Shilling didn't directly name the Boston Red Sox, the team he pitched for in the last four years of his career, in connection to the admission.

Where asked where the incident occurred, Schilling replied, "in the clubhouse."

Cowherd then pressed Schilling about who was involved in recommending the illicit drugs.

"Former members of the organization," Schilling said. "They’re no longer there. But it was an incredibly uncomfortable conversation because it came up in the midst of a group of people. The other people weren’t in the conversation, but they could clearly hear the conversation, and it was suggested to me that at my age, and in my situation, why not, what did I have to lose? Because if I wasn’t going to get healthy, it didn’t matter, and if I did get healthy, great."

Schilling added, "It caught me off guard, to say the least, but that was an awkward situation."

Cowherd did not directly ask the famed pitcher if he took PEDs near the end of his career, but the way Schilling said "in the clubhouse" suggested an aversion to it.

Schilling has been a pitcher for Major League Baseball since 1988 and retired in 2009. Schilling, a big personality on the Red Sox, is a four-time World Series winner. In 2012, he made headlines for a public dispute with Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who he said was responsible for his failed entertainment company, 38 Studios, when officials did not give him a $75 million loan guarantee that he said the former governor promised him.

In recent years, PED use has put a dark cloud over the reputations of some star athletes, most recently disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, who admitted to using drugs to Oprah Winfrey in January. Armstrong's confession came after the United States Anti-Doping Agency rescinded his seven Tour-de-France titles and banned him for life from competing.

Barry Bonds, who hit more home runs than any other player in history, and pitcher Roger Clemens, an 11-time All-Star who won seven Cy Young Awards during his career, were among those excluded despite that they told Congress they never used PEDs.

In March 2011, Bonds was convicted on the obstruction of justice charge for having lied to a grand jury during the government's investigation into the matter. Bonds received two years' probation with home confinement, plus a $4,000 fine.